What makes Steinways the best in the world?
An interview
This week I interviewed a good friend of mine who lives in Charleston now, but made his career working at Steinway & Sons Pianos in NYC. In the time I’ve known Peter, there have been a number of occasions that he casually mentioned an interaction he had with a superstar pianist or told me something fascinating about pianos. I finally had the chance to sit down with him and ask a few more questions.
What makes Steinway pianos the best pianos in the world?
The accelerated action was one invention at Steinway which allows the hammer on the strings to return at a much faster rate offering the pianists more control than any other action that had been developed up to that point. Another feature is what we call a diaphragmatic soundboard. It tapers all round-- thicker in the center than on the edges, and it’s custom fit to each piano. It’s called diaphragmatic because it actually breathes with the music that is played from the strings when the string is vibrating. One interesting illustration of this is if you take off the piano lid and put a small music box on the soundboard of the piano you can hear it amplified through piano--it’s a fascinating thing.
I imagine most people think building a piano is more like assembling a Model T than crafting a violin. Most concert pianos sound the same to me, but can professional pianists tell the difference?
We have a very unique feel when you play a Steinway; every piano is different. At Steinway there was a concert basement where we kept all of our concert pianos and they each had a different number. Pianists would go in to select a piano for a concert or a tour, and we would lend it to them. They would pay for the moving of the piano, but they could know by number which piano they wanted to take with them which is a real luxury.
How many people does it take to make a piano. It’s not just one person, right?
There’s a whole team. An individual will be responsible for one operation within the piano, but I can’t even tell you the number of people working in the factory.
What did you do at Steinway?
So my job was working with Steinway artists who play the Steinway professionally; they prefer to play the Steinway, and they all own a Steinway--that was one of the criteria of being a Steinway artist: you had to own a Steinway piano. What Steinway would do for these artists is assist them in finding pianos when they traveled. Steinway, at one time, owned 300 pianos that were stationed around the country with Steinway dealers. These were pianos that we owned and maintained, but made available for artists to use if they were traveling. So if there were going to a concert hall that didn’t have a Steinway, our Steinway dealer would arrange to bring the piano in for the performance, which was a great advantage. Especially in some concert halls where the pianos were not maintained, or who knows what kind of piano you’d have when you arrived there.
The other thing we did was offer them rehearsal time with our Steinway dealers wherever they were. And that’s another thing they find really valuable, because when they’re traveling they need a place to practice. Sometimes we’d even put Steinway upright pianos in hotel rooms if a pianist was going to be in a city for a time. They had to pay for the piano moving, but they’d often have the concert hall or production company they were performing with pay for it.
Any interesting artists you got to work with? It wasn’t just classical musicians was it?
Loads. Billy Joel, Randy Newman, Vladimir Horowitz, Evgeny Kissin.
Horowitz had 2 pianos, one in his living room and a main touring piano. When he wanted to go to Steinway Hall to practice on his touring piano, Steinway would send a limousine to his house--he had a townhouse on east 94th st. One of my first jobs in the concert department as an underling was to fetch him. So I’d go in the limousine over to his town house. When I did it for the first time they had me wait in the kitchen, which was in the basement level of his townhouse because they didn’t know me. When you were going to pick up Horowitz, you never knew whether he was going to be ready or whether you were going to have to wait two hours, or whether you would wait two hours and then he would decide he didn’t want to go after all. He was very unpredictable. So the first 6 or 7 times they would have me wait in the kitchen, then as they got to know me, they would let me wait in the foyer on the 1st floor. Then as years progressed they would let me wait in the living room which was up in on the next floor; I worked my way up the house.
It was funny because when he would go to Steinway to practice, Wanda (Toscanini Horowitz) would go with him, and they’d speak french thinking I wouldn't understand what they were saying, but in those days I was somewhat fluent in french so I understood a lot of what they were saying.
What would they talk about?
Often things about traveling and whether he wanted to go to this place or not, or issues about the house. Mundane things.
Any other stories?
When Evgeny Kissin first came to the US, he hardly spoke any English. He came to Steinway and I took him to lunch at the Russian Tea Room which was across the street. We were going in and Victor Borge was coming out of the restaurant. He sees Kissin and I introduced them and I’m not sure Kissin knew who Victor Borge was, but Victor Borge knew who Kissin was cause his hair was all crazy at the time. Victor Borge said, “I know you, you’re a fabulous pianist. I would love to hear you play sometime. Can I look at your hands to see how you do it?” So he took Kissin’s hands and was flipping them over (so both thumbs were facing the same way, but one hand was facing up and the other down) He says: “it’s funny that you can play so good when your hands don’t match!” Kissin thought it was hysterical even though I don’t know if he knew what Victor was saying.
EXTRAS
Classical Jazz Mashup: A groovy version of the “Minute Waltz” by Chopin.
How It’s Made: this is a great documentary about all the steps that go into making a Steinway. It’s fantastic!
Most Famous Melody: This is maybe the most famous part of the most famous piano concert? Anyone want to counter with something?